N.J. Shore beaches cleared for swimming, water advisories lifted

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has lifted swimming advisories at several New Jersey beaches after they tested for high levels of fecal bacteria in the water earlier this week.

On Monday weekly beach water tests found that 10 beaches showed high levels of bacteria usually found in animal or human waste. The levels were likely because of storm water runoff from heavy weekend rains, DEP spokesperson Larry Hajna said on Thursday.

The beaches were retested Tuesday and water quality levels returned to "well within the standard," allowing the DEP to lift the advisories on Wednesday, according to Hajna.

Hajna told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday that after testing all N.J. beaches, 10 of the samples contained more than 104 colony forming units (cfu) of Enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters water. Enterococci is a type of bacteria that is an indicator of possible contamination within bathing water that can include human or animal waste.

"We had a lot of rain before the test this week, so there were probably a lot of areas where birds or gulls or geese were congregating and the storm water picked up their droppings and carried it into the ocean," Hajna said.